Avatars now show in cache pages

[+Mr. Wilson & a Mt. Goat]

Glad to hear the date format is being changed back -- that was awful!

I'm not sold on the avatars showing up next to logs, but I can live with it.

 

Those are some good words!

[+sonnenwende]

I don't need awatars. Print unnecessarily consume paper. But for that I would like to return the log dates.

[+SidAndBob]

Why would you add additional code to approximate the date? Madness! Also, does anyone care who is a premium member and who isn't?

 

The layout has improved a bit during the day, but I agree that avatars are completely pointless.... Nearly as pointless as challenges.

[+Doctroid]

I don't need awatars. Print unnecessarily consume paper. But for that I would like to return the log dates.

 

People still use printers?

 

I like having the avatars there. But an account preferences item to turn them off would be good.

[Pup Patrol]

Yes, some of us still use printers. Some of us even use non-phone gps devices to hunt for caches!

 

I'm not concerned with printing the cache pages, though. The addition of avatars makes cache pages clunky and cluttered and are very distracting and annoying.

 

It was a poor design decision to add them.

[+dfx]

I'm puzzled, what value was there in the actual date being on the cache page? How is the current display of information hindering? I ask because I don't see how the change matters, educate me.

Because "about 3 years ago" doesn't even tell you if it was in summer or winter?

[+GeoGeeBee]

I'm puzzled, what value was there in the actual date being on the cache page? How is the current display of information hindering? I ask because I don't see how the change matters, educate me.

It matters if I'm trying to verify that the logs on the cache page match the logs in the paper logbook of a cache that I own.

[+Frank Broughton]

I kinda like the new look, it's a nice change apart from the date.

 

It is growing on me too....

 

I'm puzzled, what value was there in the actual date being on the cache page? How is the current display of information hindering? I ask because I don't see how the change matters, educate me.

Because "about 3 years ago" doesn't even tell you if it was in summer or winter?

 

Yes, and for me living in the Buffalo NY area that is important - very much so! 8-)

[+eTom22]

At least on my screen, it seems that they've replaced the actual date with a Facebook-like or Twitter-like estimate of about how long ago it was. So I'm not seeing "6/15/2011" but rather "about two months ago".

 

That might work for Facebook and Twitter and Foursquare and Gowalla and whatever else is floating out there, but for geocaching logs I'm not really on board.

 

Yep! A lame attempt to copy Facebook, Twitter, etc. How is this better than listing the date? Anyone???? Bueller?????

 

But that's the way of the world, now. The Internet basically *IS* Facebook and Twitter. Kids today can't do math and couldn't tell you what the fifth or sixth month of the year is. The only way they'll know how long ago a cache was found is if they're told "xx months ago"

 

As much as I don't agree with it, I completely understand why they made the change.

[+paleolith]

I'm puzzled, what value was there in the actual date being on the cache page?

When you're reading logs, following what happened often depends on knowing whether people visited on the same date. "About a year ago" doesn't tell this.

 

If something went wrong with the cache, knowing the exact sequence of events can help. With the vague date indications, it's not clear whether logs from "about a year ago" are even in correct sequence -- they probably are, but it's not clear from the display.

 

If a TB went AWOL, it can be important to be able to match TB log dates with cache log dates.

 

When I'm reading logs, it's often of interest whether the visit was made on a weekend or weekday, holiday, etc.

 

As for the logs formatting, while some people use ABP, others don't. Most browsers allow you to install a user CSS file for each site (though the only browser I can provide instructions for is Opera). I posted this CSS in another thread:

 

/* Make avatars on logs just totally vanish.
I don't know whether this prevents the download. */

.logOwnerAvatar {display:none}

/* Tighten up the spacing in the log. Readability is not
reduced at all, due to the alternating background colors
and the bold log type. */

.LogDisplayRight .LogText
  {min-height: 0    !important;
   padding-top: 0   !important;
   margin-bottom: 0 !important}

/* Try to stop the View Log from taking up a whole line
all for itself. This occasionally (perhaps 1 log in 10)
causes the View Log to overlap a bit of the log text.
If this bothers you, remove this line. The only cost of
removing it is a bit of extra space at the bottom of
most logs. */

.LogText + .AlignRight {margin-top: -20px !important}

 

Edward

[+eTom22]

I don't need awatars. Print unnecessarily consume paper. But for that I would like to return the log dates.

 

People still use printers?

 

I like having the avatars there. But an account preferences item to turn them off would be good.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with this. I *LOVE* having the avatars there. It's nice to be able to scroll down the list and see if friends or other local cachers have been there at a glance. For browsing on a smartphone it makes it easier to scroll down to a specific cacher's log, too.

 

I also agree that an option to toggle for those people that still print things would be a good compromise. I just hope that we don't lose this contemporary new log style completely due to public outcry!

[Pup Patrol]

You really like seeing this as an addition to the cache page?

 

 

 

 

At the very least, we should be given the option whether the avatars appear or not.

Edited August 19, 2011 by Pup Patrol

[+niraD]

You really like seeing this as an addition to the cache page?

 

 

 

 

At the very least, we should be given the option whether the avatars appear or not.

Well, no. I don't really like seeing the default avatar when few of the recent finders have set their own avatar images. But I actually like seeing the avatars of those who have set them.

[+John in Valley Forge]

Yes, some of us still use printers. Some of us even use non-phone gps devices to hunt for caches!

 

I'm not concerned with printing the cache pages, though. The addition of avatars makes cache pages clunky and cluttered and are very distracting and annoying.

 

It was a poor design decision to add them.

 

I thought that you already established (like back on your third post in the thread) that the avatars do not appear if you use the "print with logs" button.

 

I like the avatars showing on the page. Looking at some caches I've now seen hundred of avatars of people I know from logs, instead of just the dozen or so regular posters in here.

[+John in Valley Forge]

You really like seeing this as an addition to the cache page?

 

 

 

 

At the very least, we should be given the option whether the avatars appear or not.

Well, no. I don't really like seeing the default avatar when few of the recent finders have set their own avatar images. But I actually like seeing the avatars of those who have set them.

 

I'd bet you a cupcake that people who presently have no avatar will now consider making or getting one so that they won't be a blank face.

[+deranja]

I guess im an exception, the new format doesnt bother me at all. I like how it looks, but thats just me.

[+JBnW]

You really like seeing this as an addition to the cache page?

 

 

 

 

At the very least, we should be given the option whether the avatars appear or not.

Well, no. I don't really like seeing the default avatar when few of the recent finders have set their own avatar images. But I actually like seeing the avatars of those who have set them.

 

I'd bet you a cupcake that people who presently have no avatar will now consider making or getting one so that they won't be a blank face.

Make that a donut and you're on!

[+BuckeyeClan]

Yes, some of us still use printers. Some of us even use non-phone gps devices to hunt for caches!

 

I'm not concerned with printing the cache pages, though. The addition of avatars makes cache pages clunky and cluttered and are very distracting and annoying.

 

It was a poor design decision to add them.

 

I thought that you already established (like back on your third post in the thread) that the avatars do not appear if you use the "print with logs" button.

 

I like the avatars showing on the page. Looking at some caches I've now seen hundred of avatars of people I know from logs, instead of just the dozen or so regular posters in here.

 

I agree, I like it too! Kinda neat seeing some different avatars. Current status on the feedback thread says that the date issue will be fixed today.

[+dprovan]

I'd bet you a cupcake that people who presently have no avatar will now consider making or getting one so that they won't be a blank face.

Funny you should mention it: I was thinking of deleting my avatar if it's going to be in people's face so much.

 

By the way, I think the log date change and avatars are obscuring one other issue: the rework of how many finds the logger has isn't useful, either. The concise practice of having the find count in parentheses immediately after the name was just fine. Certainly there's no need for the extraneous bar graph icon next to it.

 

I hate to hear someone get bashed for trying so hard, but what we're all saying is that we don't want useless fluff. Geocachers are practical.

[+dfx]

I'd bet you a cupcake that people who presently have no avatar will now consider making or getting one so that they won't be a blank face.

Unless they're smartphone users, in which case they'll never know and also likely submit blank logs

[+GrievousAngel]

Ick Ick Ick.

 

Welcome to CacheBook, er, Cachewalla, uh, GeoTweet, um, . . . What is this site about, anyway? Next thing you know we'll have GeoDate--oh, wait--someone already asked for that.

 

Whatever happened to getting coords, grabbing your GPSr, and going out to find a box in the woods?

Edited August 20, 2011 by GrievousAngel

[+GrievousAngel]

Ick Ick Ick.

 

Welcome to CacheBook, er, Cachewalla, uh, GeoTweet, um, . . . What is this site about, anyway? Next thing you know we'll have GeoDate--oh, wait--someone already asked for that.

 

Whatever happened to getting coords, grabbing your GPSr, and going out to find a box in the woods?

[AZcachemeister]

They really don't bug me as much as other things I REALLY don't want to see here.

 

My question is: Who asked for this?

 

Was there a huge feedback thread I missed somewhere?

 

What about the stuff we actually DID ask for?

[+pjmpjm]

I'm not particularly keen on Avatars showing in the logs. At the very least, their size should be reduced.

[+Doctroid]

I'm not particularly keen on Avatars showing in the logs. At the very least, their size should be reduced.

 

You know, I think they were. Just now I looked and it looks to me like the avatars are smaller than they were a few hours ago. Definitely smaller than they are on the forum posts. At least in my browser.

 

And I think I've figured out why they made this design change. It makes the minimum vertical size of a log larger, which means if someone enters a "TFTC" log or a blank log, the huge gulf of whitespace will stick out like a sore thumb. That space just screams "fill me with some words!"

 

Or not...

[+Ambient_Skater]

...if someone enters a "TFTC" log or a blank log, the huge gulf of whitespace will stick out like a sore thumb. That space just screams "fill me with some words!"

The white space on a TFTC log has pretty much always screamed that.

[+niraD]

Just now I looked and it looks to me like the avatars are smaller than they were a few hours ago. Definitely smaller than they are on the forum posts. At least in my browser.

Yep. They've taken the original 75x75 avatar images and resized them to 48x48 with HTML.

[+Skakeeper]

I don't need to see someone's avatar. I don't like the way they clutter up the page and I'm sure plenty of people will have to buy lots more color ink. At the very least, if we're going to be stuck looking at avatars could they PLEASE redesign the creepy non-smiley avatar or just leave it blank?

[+Ambient_Skater]

I don't need to see someone's avatar. I don't like the way they clutter up the page ...

Maybe if you got yourself an avatar you'd appreciate them more

[+Hot Pepper Crew]

I don't need to see someone's avatar. I don't like the way they clutter up the page and I'm sure plenty of people will have to buy lots more color ink. At the very least, if we're going to be stuck looking at avatars could they PLEASE redesign the creepy non-smiley avatar or just leave it blank?

I too wish the avatars didn't print when you print the logs.

 

Oh wait...

 

Maybe it's too bad I didn't take the time to read this thread before my post since it was stated several times that the avatars DON'T print when you print a log. I guess you won't be buying all that color ink after all.

 

I personally like the avatars in the logs. I wish they showed up on my iPhone app!

[+Skakeeper]

Let's see...everyone wanted the dates, most don't want the avatars and no one asked for the changes. Thanks for bringing back the dates but now they are too small, too faint and "way over there". It's nice that you're willing to be innovative and make changes but why make the site less useful just to look more like "other" sites. Some past changes weren't widely accepted at first. I personally enjoy the "Favorites" feature. It's useful to know which caches are especially fun, interesting or challenging enough to garner lots of votes. It's also nice to have a cache of your own recognized with a favorite point. I think that eventually most will enjoy that you've created "Challenges" as a way to bring back "Virtuals". However, one can simply not use the link for that feature if they don't like it. The recent changes to the way one interacts with every cache page are simply impossible to ignore. I vote that you hit the "UNDO" button and bring everything back to the way it was. At least could we opt for "Geocaching.com CLASSIC" or "New hip and trendy Geocaching.com"? Mostly though, I appreciate the fact that you consider the opinions of your users and are willing to adapt to please us. So please, continue to be proactive and innovative, but maybe it would be good to poll the users or have some users test beta versions before unleashing major changes. Thanks for listening. TFTC

[+Skakeeper]

I don't need to see someone's avatar. I don't like the way they clutter up the page and I'm sure plenty of people will have to buy lots more color ink. At the very least, if we're going to be stuck looking at avatars could they PLEASE redesign the creepy non-smiley avatar or just leave it blank?

I too wish the avatars didn't print when you print the logs.

 

Oh wait...

 

Maybe it's too bad I didn't take the time to read this thread before my post since it was stated several times that the avatars DON'T print when you print a log. I guess you won't be buying all that color ink after all.

 

I personally like the avatars in the logs. I wish they showed up on my iPhone app!

[+Skakeeper]

Oh wait...

If you choose "Print last 5 logs" or "Print last 10 logs" or "Print all logs" it loads a new page and no the avatars are not there to print. If you just print the page, it will print the avatars using more ink and more paper.

Edited August 20, 2011 by Skakeeper

[+Chrysalides]

They really don't bug me as much as other things I REALLY don't want to see here.

 

My question is: Who asked for this?

 

Was there a huge feedback thread I missed somewhere?

 

What about the stuff we actually DID ask for?

Let's just say it's good to be the CEO.

[+DanOCan]

Hate to say it, but now that they fixed the date issue I don't mind the new layout on the logs.

[+Chrysalides]

Hate to say it, but now that they fixed the date issue I don't mind the new layout on the logs.

After you start whipping the people twice a week, it feels better when the whipping is just reduced to once a week

 

Personally I still don't care for it, but it's easier "fixing" it with Greasemonkey and Adblock.

[+GeoGeeBee]

By the way, I think the log date change and avatars are obscuring one other issue: the rework of how many finds the logger has isn't useful, either. The concise practice of having the find count in parentheses immediately after the name was just fine. Certainly there's no need for the extraneous bar graph icon next to it.

 

 

Oh, but now that extra information is important. At least it's important to those who insist that "Challenges aren't caches and shouldn't count as finds." The single number is the total of caches found + challenges completed. By hovering over the little graph you can find out how many of those are caches and how many are challenges.

 

So everyone gets what they want: Challenges should count! They do. Challenges shouldn't count! It's easy to find out how many "real" caches a player has found.

[knowschad]

I'm puzzled, what value was there in the actual date being on the cache page? How is the current display of information hindering? I ask because I don't see how the change matters, educate me.

 

Moot point now, but why take an exact date and fuzz it up like that? What is the value of that? Educate me, please.

[knowschad]

I don't need to see someone's avatar. I don't like the way they clutter up the page and I'm sure plenty of people will have to buy lots more color ink. At the very least, if we're going to be stuck looking at avatars could they PLEASE redesign the creepy non-smiley avatar or just leave it blank?

There is an option near the top of the cache page to print a "printer-friendly" version of the page. I can't log in right now to give you better information, but it says something like "No logs", "Show 5 logs", "Show 10 logs", etc. You should be using that if you must print out the cache page. Most of us, however, are now caching paperless, so we aren't using any more ink with the avatars or without them.

[knowschad]

Hate to say it, but now that they fixed the date issue I don't mind the new layout on the logs.

 

I pretty much agree with you there. I really don't care about the avatars, but I don't mind them, either. I do wish that users with no avatar would simply not display, however (just like these forums do).

[+Chrysalides]

Hate to say it, but now that they fixed the date issue I don't mind the new layout on the logs.

I pretty much agree with you there. I really don't care about the avatars, but I don't mind them, either. I do wish that users with no avatar would simply not display, however (just like these forums do).

Adblock is your friend.

[knowschad]

Hate to say it, but now that they fixed the date issue I don't mind the new layout on the logs.

I pretty much agree with you there. I really don't care about the avatars, but I don't mind them, either. I do wish that users with no avatar would simply not display, however (just like these forums do).

Adblock is your friend.

 

It would help if I had ABP enabled! MUCH better now.

 

geocaching.com##IMG[src="/images/default_avatar.jpg"]

Edited August 22, 2011 by knowschad

[+Chrysalides]

It would help if I had ABP enabled! MUCH better now.

 

geocaching.com##IMG[src="/images/default_avatar.jpg"]

Strangely, when I was trying this out, everyone has a default avatar. This happened a few times over the weekend. I wonder if pulling the avatar image is causing too much load on GS servers.

[knowschad]

It would help if I had ABP enabled! MUCH better now.

 

geocaching.com##IMG[src="/images/default_avatar.jpg"]

Strangely, when I was trying this out, everyone has a default avatar. This happened a few times over the weekend. I wonder if pulling the avatar image is causing too much load on GS servers.

Somebody posted in one of these threads that they had turned the avatars off while debugging the weekend performance issues. Of course, it is still sending the default_avatar.jpg for each log, but at least that will be cached.

[+Frank Broughton]

Hate to say it, but now that they fixed the date issue I don't mind the new layout on the logs.

 

I pretty much agree with you there. I really don't care about the avatars, but I don't mind them, either. I do wish that users with no avatar would simply not display, however (just like these forums do).

 

Just adblock one default image and they all go away and when the real ones come back they will be the only ones showing.

[knowschad]

Hate to say it, but now that they fixed the date issue I don't mind the new layout on the logs.

 

I pretty much agree with you there. I really don't care about the avatars, but I don't mind them, either. I do wish that users with no avatar would simply not display, however (just like these forums do).

 

Just adblock one default image and they all go away and when the real ones come back they will be the only ones showing.

Thanks, Frank. Guess you wrote that before you finished reading my posts, though, huh?

[+fluoro]

Hate to say it, but now that they fixed the date issue I don't mind the new layout on the logs.

I pretty much agree with you there. I really don't care about the avatars, but I don't mind them, either. I do wish that users with no avatar would simply not display, however (just like these forums do).

Adblock is your friend.

 

It would help if I had ABP enabled! MUCH better now.

 

geocaching.com##IMG[src="/images/default_avatar.jpg"]

That's a really good idea, thanks for that!

[+Chokecherry]

I just wish I didn't have to scroll back and forth read logs as I have to now. Not all of us have the big computer screens. They seem to forget that a lot.

[+Rckhnd]

On my screen the log dates are there, but no avatars show at all, just the grey face.

[+ZSandmann]

I like the avatars in the logs, but I totally agree the dates need to be corrected.

 

About... days ago will not cut it.